Amberdectomy & dirty reflector
 

I finished the amberdectomy of one headlight and found the soldering iron plastic smoke left a layer of soot on the reflector. Is there a way to clean the reflector???? q-tip and deionized water perhaps?

Tool Pants, any technique to avoid this problem before I do the second one?

Update ....

I decided to jump in and do the second headlight but this time took a few extra precautions. Reducing the soldering iron temperature eliminated much of the smoke and lowering a piece of foil in front of the reflector helped block what did arise.

Either the first reflector looks better now or the second is equally worse. It could have been a buildup of condensation that took time to evaporate. The overall light output is definitely less, maybe half, but this could be the result of removing the diffuser. A chromed bulb doesn't help light output either.

Despite this I am glad the last vestiges of amber are gone and it looks really good on a black car. One last task is to use compressed air from work to blow out a few small bits of melted plastic and at the same time I'll reevaluate the reflector and decide whether to attempt some sort of cleaning.

If you are going to try this mod, be committed. Once the soldering iron touches the plastic there is no going back, and completing one light is only half way done. But the result, c'est magnifique.

I never got any smoke... Maybe yours was still too high. I posted my technique somewhere, im sure if you had searched for it it might have come up. My light output seems the same still.

So your light output didn't change. Hmmmm. In that case I will examine the reflectors at work tomorrow. The lab bench lighting is far superior to what I have at home and our optics expert may have an idea about cleaning.

I attempted this technique on my TL's tail lights. Result: Botched. Ended up ordering a new set of tail lights on eBay. Not only do you need to be committed to this project, you have to have a steady hand... Some guys just aren't cut out for plastic surgery. (Hey, that's a pretty good pun.)

How 'bout some pix Tim?

please post some pictures if you have a chance...I'd like to see how they came out.

Jeph,
"plastic surgery" hehe;)

Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week.

Now Tim, PIX!?!